Not over yet for Port St. Lucie's Faiella: State appeals dismissal of civil infractions | Timeline

ERIC HASERT/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS Port St. Lucie Mayor JoAnn Faiella walks out from the Martin County Courthouse with her attorney John Anastasio after her case for allegedly violating Florida Sunshine Laws in 2013 was dismissed.

The State Attorney's Office is appealing a Martin County judge's May 9 ruling that dismissed civil infractions against Port St. Lucie Mayor JoAnn Faiella for allegedly violating public records laws, court records show.

A notice of intent to appeal Martin County Judge Kathleen Roberts' ruling was filed Tuesday. The appeal will seek to overturn Roberts' order that threw out the noncriminal infractions filed against Faiella last year on grounds that her right to a speedy trial had expired.

Since December, Faiella had faced a pair of civil infractions for allegedly deleting text messages — considered public records — from her city-issued cellphone and speaking with another council member about city business outside of a public meeting in violation of Florida's Government-in-the-Sunshine Law.

Roberts ruled both cases expired under the rules of speedy trial and recapture periods, under criminal proceeding laws.

Assistant State Attorney Ryan Butler said the state is appealing "because the court made an error.

He said the state's appeal will argue Roberts committed an error by dismissing the citations Faiella faced, because there is no right to a speedy trial for noncriminal infractions.

"The court erred as a matter of law in holding that there was," he said Tuesday.

Roberts further erred, Butler said, "in changing a prior judge's order that the speedy trial rule did not apply."

That's a ruling Butler said St. Lucie County Judge Phillip J. Yacucci Jr. made in March before he stepped off the case and it was reassigned to Roberts. Yacucci ruled that speedy trial periods would not hold up because there is no mention of them in regard to noncriminal infractions under criminal proceeding laws.

"(Roberts) didn't have any authority to change the prior judge's ruling," insisted Butler, "because that was already the law of the case."

Faiella's lawyer John Anastasio on Tuesday disagreed with Butler, and said they will fight the appeal.

"I am shocked that they would waste more taxpayer money," Anastasio said.

A key issue now, he insisted, is that the state convinced the first judge on the case, St. Lucie County Judge Kathryn Nelson, to rule that applying the rules of criminal procedure was proper for resolving the civil infractions she faced, rather than rules of civil procedure, which opened the door to Faiella's right to a speedy trial.

"Judge Roberts correctly asked the question to the state, do you agree that the rules of criminal procedure apply? The state said yes," Anastasio recalled. "And then she asked ‘if the rules of criminal procedure apply, why wouldn't the speedy trial in the rules of criminal procedure apply?'

"The state essentially said it applies, but not this rule," he noted. "Judge Roberts looked at (prosecutors) and said ‘you're either all in or all out, and you said the rules applied but now you're picking what rules apply?' She wouldn't buy that argument and I don't think the appellate panel will buy that argument."

The appeal eventually will be heard by a panel of three circuit judges. It could be late summer before the state files its brief and Anastasio is expected to file a written response.

It could take from six months to a year for the appeal to be ruled upon.